What is the legal liability of parole board members and staff for acts committed by persons on community supervision? The answer is affected largely by whether the particular official involved enjoys absolute, rather than qualified, immunity, but again, the matter remains unsettled. These issues and others should be resolved promptly. (Author)

Preoccupation with due process has tended to obscure the substantive issues of probation administration. Restraint is an important goal of probation; it can be realized by setting specific, enforceable probation conditions to limit the probationer's opportunity for further crime and revoking probation if the probationer cannot abide by reasonable…

Evidence is presented to show that, at every level in the system, girls charged with status offenses are treated more harshly than girls charged with crimes. Further, the noncriminal activity of girls is frequently seen as requiring more drastic intervention than the criminal behavior of boys. (Author)

A study of defendents in Houston, Texas, indicated that some low-income defendents were boycotting court-appointed counsel. The type of attorney did not seem to be significant. Advocacy-oriented counsel was recommended as a means of improving justice. (Author/BEF)

The Minnesota Newgate program uses full-time college work as part of a comprehensive service that includes classes within the correctional institution, group counseling, and, upon parole, transfer to a halfway house on the University of Minnesota campus. The program's aim is to orient the student toward a promising career. (Author)

Results of this study show that changing sex role definitions and the women's movement have had little impact on sentencing outcomes of male or female defendants. (Author)

In this detailed clinical study of 20 military offenders participating in the Air Force retraining program, three types of offenders were identified: (1) neurotic; (2) immature yet socially conforming; and (3) antisocial. Findings suggest a continuity between personality patterns exhibited by juvenile delinquents and the patterns in adult…

Examines the relationship between race and crime as reflected in the literature and evaluates explanations based upon these findings. Self-report research fails to demonstrate a relationship between race and crime. Amounts of Black involvement explained by selection bias based on racial characteristics, however, are not consistently supported by…

Emphasizes the usefulness of a benefit-cost perspective to generate ideas for encouraging lawful behavior in a variety of different situations. Illustrating the utility of the benefit-cost perspective are traditional criminal behavior, business wrongdoing, and rule violations by public officials. (Author)

Compared criminal court verdicts after trials with and without juries. A study of 58,336 trials of persons charged with felonies showed that juries convict substantially more often than judges trying cases alone. Jury toughness is seen as a response to the growth of popular conservatism on criminal justice issues. (JAC)

Regarding the 100-year anniversary of probation, the author provides a description of how this practice evolved in the United States, and examines some issues facing it in the future. (HMV)

Presents recent evidence, obtained from a review of the literature on correctional treatment published since 1973, appealing the verdict that correctional rehabilitation is ineffective. There are several types of intervention programs that have proved successful with offender populations. (Author)

Information derived from an extensive search of the literature illustrates dramatic increase of female crime; it further suggests the potential for modifying sexist nature of the criminal justice system. Attention is directed to particular suggestions for reform, leading to a postulation of new directions in treatment of the female offender.…

Although the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 advocated the use of "least restrictive alternatives," the U.S. Sentencing Commission has devised guidelines that authorize prison for all felony convictions. Demonstrates that a large number of cases in the federal caseload from 1992-93 that were considered ineligible for nonincarcerative…

Assessed the actual recidivism rate of offenders who commit sexual assaults. Found the majority of the offenders had been convicted more than once and admitted to having committed sex crimes for which they were not apprehended. Results suggest recidivism is not a dependable measure of rehabilitation. (Author/JAC)